Pete Cacchione -- his record,

Pete Cacchione — His Record

By S. W. GERSON

u

INTRODUCTION

IT'S not a temple or a cathedral. Just a little tailor s place
or the neighborhood barber shop or a public school.
But there's something sacred about it to Americans.

It's a polling place, and on Nov. % if you're 21 and have
registered, that is, you're going to cast your vote like a
free man. You're going to help elect judges, the Lieuten-
ant Governor and City Councilmen.

After you've signed your name in the registration book,
you'll walk into a booth, pull the curtain after you and
vote on the machine for candidates of your choice.

Then, as you come out, you'll be handed a paper ballot
on which are a list of candidates for City Council. You
vote by boroughs. If you're a Brooklynite you'll see
among those names, this one:

Peter V. Cacchione Comm.

This little pamphlet is the story of Pete Cacchione's
record in office. It is the record on which he is running
for re-election and which has inspired persons of many
political views to join in a Citizens Non-Partisan Com-
mittee for his re-election.

It is the record which inspires the Communist candi-
dates in other boroughs— Benjamin J. Davis, Jr., Manhat-
tan; Isidore Begun, The Bronx; and Paul Crosbie, Queens.

All we ask is that you read the record.

S. W. GERSON

,LD AL SMITH had the word for it. "Let's look
at the record," he used to say.*

Then he'd go to town, either demolishing his opponent
or building up his candidate, just by a close examination
of the record. ^

And that's fair enough, most people will agree. Let's
look at the record today, when hundreds of thousands of
New Yorkers are preparing to vote for members of the
City Council.

Let's examine the record of Peter V. Cacchione of
Brooklyn. (Everybody in Brooklyn calls him Pete, just
like they call the Dodgers by their first names.) Pete is
a Communist, elected in 1941 with about 48,000 votes,
about 5,000 of them coming from Communists. The rest
came from non-members of the Communist Party who
supported Pete because of his program and his unceasing
work in behalf of the common man.

3

His record as a private citizen was what endeared him
to tens of thousands of people. A World War veteran,
Pete was active in the fight for the soldiers' bonus and
for more liberal treatment of all ex-servicemen and their
families. When the crash hit America, Pete was in the
thick of the fight for relief and unemployment insurance.
He helped the unorganized workers organize into strong
trade unions and win higher pay and better conditions.

When he saw black men and women discriminated
against because of their color, Pete fought it in every
way. Likewise, when he witnessed discrimination against
those of Jewish or Italian extraction, he fought back.

When America entered the war, Pete threw himself
into the fight on the home front. He dedicated all his
energies to speeding the day of victory, so that the lights
would go on again soon and our boys be back with us
in a better, happier world.

Everything he's ever done in the City Council has been
done from that point of view— shortening the war by
strengthening the home front and improving the lot of
the common man.

Yes, let's look at Pete's record in office.

^

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Pete made a number of pledges when he ran for office.
He said that if elected he would
—fight the high cost of living;
—fight race hatred and discrimination;
—fight to improve the city's schools, hospitals and other

facilities and improve conditions of city employees;
—do everything else in his power to strengthen the war

effort.

it ^ ^

Seeing Mama's market basket take wings and prices
soaring, Pete promptly resolved to act. He got his first
chance shortly after he was sworn in, when powerful inter-
ests tried to boost the 5-cent fare. Pete acted.

First he got to the people. He wrote a pamphlet
backing the bill introduced in the State Legislature by
State Senator Muzzicato, which provided for a freezing of
the fare at 5 cents. He explained the issue in hundreds of
letters to organizations all over the city and helped
organize a a large delegation to Albany. He personally
went along with the delegation and spoke eloquently in
favor of the Muzzicato Bill.

P.S. The Muzzicato Bill was passed and signed by the
Governor. The 5-cent fare was saved, due to the efforts

5

of Pete Gkcchione and others who rallied to that fight.
Another price rise was halted.

But Pete wasn't content with that. He saw that all
prices were rising. So he swiftly introduced measures

—to freeze rents (Res. 224)

—to keep milk and bread prices down (Res. 225 & 226)

-to back President Roosevelt and the OPA in a program
designed to help the farmers produce more milk and
more foodstuffs while keeping prices down to the
consumers (Res. 188.)

But Pete did more than introduce bills and resolutions
in the City Council. Confident that the people are the
final source of strength, he went to the people with the
issues. He organized delegations, mass meetings, petitions
and every other conceivable form of pressure to roll back
prices. He wrote to trade union and civic organizations,
and addressed countless open air meetings. High prices to
Pete aren't some cold figures in thick reports. They mean
that extra bottle of milk for the kids, that sunlit apart-
ment, that extra shirt.

^

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Against Race Hatred

Pete is an American. That is, he beheves deeply in the
Constitution, that all men are born free and equal. Fur-
thermore, he believes that the Constitution means exactly
what it says when it speaks of equality.

He knows that race hatred is a weapon of Hitler to
divide Americans— Negro from white, Jew from Gentile,
native-born from foreign-born. Catholic from Protestant.

■,-)

Because he wants to see a united America, he has done
everything in his power to wipe out race hatred.

In the City Council he introduced bills to wipe out
"hate" ads, those venomous little want ads which specify
"white Christian only," "white Protestant only," etc., etc.
His measures (Int. 75 and Res. 228) would punish news-
papers which carry such advertisements by forbidding them
from receiving any of the lucrative City and State adver-
tising they now get.

P.S. Pete's bills weren't passed, but the Democratic
majority, as in their wont, promptly got worried and
pushed through a similar measure, the Hart Bill. (Inci-
dentally, that's happened on a number of Pete's measures.
Pete simply shrugs his shoulders and says, "Imitation is
the sincerest form of flattery" and lets it go at that. As
Pete says, he has no pride of authorship. A good bill is a
good bill, no matter who sponsors it.)

Pete has introduced legislation (Int. 248) to eliminate
discrimination in the renting of apartments, in civil
service, in business licenses, in places of public accomoda-
tion. This bill would compel the posting of the State
Civil Right Law in all public places (hotels, restaurants,
taverns, etc.) to acquaint people with their rights and
point out that penalties can be levied for discrimination.

But Pete went further than introducing legislation
against race hatred. He filed charges with License Com-
missioner Paul Moss against employment agencies which
continued to discriminate. He was successful in his action
and the Commissioner forced the employment agencies to
change their practices. And that's typical of Peter. He not
only wants to get good laws on the books but he wants
to see them enforced— and he fights for their enforcement.

Knowing that jobs are the greatest concern of the Negro
people and knowing how badly the war effort needs the

7

great reservoir of Negro manpower, Pete has led delega-
tions to factories in Brooklyn, demanding that they hire
Negroes. Brooklyn Negro leaders are well acquainted
with the delegations that Pete led to the Metropolitan
Engineering Company, at Atlantic and Nostrand Avenues.

Pete also led a delegation to Branch Rickey, owner of
the Brooklyn Dodgers, urging that the Dodgers be the
first to break down Jim Crow barriers and hire some of
the superb Negro ball players now barred from the big
leagues.

At every and any opportunity, he took action against
anti-Negro and anti-Semitic agiation. It was Pete who
introduced into the City Council, immediately after the
Detroit riots, a resolution (Res. 308) calling on the Coun-
cil to set up an investigating committee to ferret out all
groups and individuals spreading race hatred and anti-
Negro, anti-Jewish and Christian Front propaganda.

Like most of Pete's legislation, it was not palatable to
the majority machine, which was put on the spot. They

8

tried to kill Res. 308 in committee, but were forced to
debate the issue on the floor when Pete moved to dis-
charge the committee from further consideration of his
measure. The opposition couldn't meet the issues; all
they could do was shout that it was an ''election maneuver."
However, the thoughtful members of the minority voted
with Pete, including the distinguished Negro leader, the
Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

It was Pete who introduced a resolution (Res. 318)
calling for the removal from the police force of the anti-
Semitic, anti-war Patrolman John Drew of Brownsville
(who has already had to face one departmental trial).

Pete knows that discrimination doesn't end at the boun-

daries of New York City. He understands well that Con-
gress must act in order to eliminate Jim Crowism. He
therefore introduced a resolution (Res. 229) in support
of the Marcantonio Anti-Poll Tax Bill, H.R. 7.

Feb. 16, Pete urged the New York City Congressmen
to aid in getting the Marcantonio Anti-Poll Tax Bill out of
committee (Res. 229). P.S. The bill got out of committee
and was passed by the House. After it was passed Pete,
his eye on the ball, introduced another resolution (Res*
302) urging Senators Wagner and Mead to back it.

Pete not only introduced a series o£ bills and resolu-
tions. He voted for every bill in the Council which
would help to wipe out racial discrimination.

Because he is so active in promoting iriter-racial har-
mony, Pete has been endorsed by both Negro and white
leaders. It is no accident that the Citizens N on-Partisan
Committee for the Re-Election of Peter V. Cacchione has
as its vice-chairman a leading Negro minister and vice-
president of the Baptist Ministers' Alliance, Rev. Thomas
S. Harten, of the Holy Trinity Baptist Church, Brooklyn,

it ^ iz

Pete is a worker. He knows the things that go to make
up a worker's life. He knows, for example, how much
that morning and evening rush-hour subway trip can take
out of a working-man or working-woman, particularly at a
time when labor is straining every effort to produce for
the war.

He made a personal investigation of transit con-
ditions in the city and of how overcrowded many lines
are, particularly at peak hours. He worked out a very
careful plan for staggering working hours in order to
relieve traffic congestion. He wrote to many cities where
they have such plans and got a report on how they worked

10

out. He discussed the matter with the War Manpower
Commission representatives in New York and got their
approval of the basic idea.

Finally, Pete introduced a resolution (Res, 203) in the
City Council calling for the creation of a committee to
work out a city-wide plan for staggering working hours
and forced a public hearing on it. At this hearing Pete
was backed by representatives of organized labor and
numerous civic groups. His plan, however, was killed
by the committee, which apparently preferred to continue
overcrowded conditions rather than adopt a proposal made
by Councilman Cacchione.

Shortly after the Normandie burning, Pete, who is well
aware of conditions of the waterfront, introduced a reso-
lution (Res. 116) calling for the investigation of the whole
situation in order eliminate the possibility of fire and
sabotage and in order to faciUtate the shipment of war
materials from our port. Despite support by the National

11

Maritime Union and rank and file longshoremen, this
Dill, too, was killed in committee.

Neverthless, Pete's public efforts had effect. The federal
government stepped in and waterfront conditions were
materially improved.

Labor, Civil Service and the Budget

r^JiT ^T '"PP°"^^ ^^^'y P'-^Posal to improve the con-
ditions of the underpaid civil service employees. He
voted for real collective bargaining for all civil service
workers and was leader of the fight in the Council to

voted for badly needed wage raises for all civil service
workers. His fight on all these matters has won him wide
support from civil service employees and the endorsement
o the State County and Municipal Workers (CIO) and
other organizations. ^ ^

Labor s attitude towards him can be indicated by the
factthat the Greater New York Industrial Union Council
^(aO) and many other labor organizations have endorsed

Budgets are generally a headache, whether it is
your personal budget or the City budget. Most people
dread reading long, tedious budget messages and gfopfng
their way through a maze of figures ^ ^

But not Pete. He didn't just "leave it to the experts "
He studied and digested the various complicated bu2t
messages and worked out his own ideas ^

Pete quickly saw that the City was reaching the end of
Its financial rope and that it couldn't finance essentia
social services out of real estate taxes alone. He saw tha
the State was getting far too much out of taxes colTected
m New York City and introduced a resolution (Re lest
urging the Governor and legislative leaders at Albany ti

12

pass legislation granting New York City a larger share of
State tax receipts and increasing the City's power to tax
utilities and financial businesses. After Governor Dewey
announced that he anticipated a $70,000,000 surplus, Pete
organized a vigorous fight for a special session of the State
Legislature and introduced a special resolution (Res. 273)
to that end. A bitter fight on the floor took place on the
issue, with the Democratic machine members, curiously
enough, coming to the aid of Governor Dewey, and the
minority-Laborites, Independents and two out of three
Republicans— voting with Pete.

i^ -^ ^

Pete acted on many other questions. He introduced
legislation to strengthen the school system (Res. 187) and
a resolution (Res. 325) to increase allotments to soldiers'
wives, and another resolution (Res. 326) urging a co-
ordinated program of nursery schools and after-school care
so that the children of drafted fathers could be taken care
of while their mothers took jobs in war industry.

Pete introduced a resolution (Res. 130), supported by
Treasury Department representatives, to deduct 10 per
cent fiom each Councilman's salary for the purchase of
war bonds. P.S. That resolution was defeated by the
majority which had no answer to it except red-baiting
arguments. But that didn't stop Pete's bond-selling activi-
ties. He sold bonds at outdoor rallies and at his own
office until by October 1943, he personally had sold more
than 1320,000 worth, mainly in small denominations
i^ ik -^

That's the record. It's the record of a man who has
never forgotten that this country is at war and that the
home front must be strengthened if we are to win this
war. It is on that record that citizens of many political
faiths agree that Pete has earned re-election.

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City Council - 1942-43 - Record on Selected Bills

1 2 3 4 5, 6 7 R
Cacchione 4- ^ ^ ^j_j_ ^ ,

J 9 10 11

12 13, 14 15

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EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS

Plus means a progressive vote. ^"I'ng /\i=faiin:>| a measure.)

Minus means a bad vote

aIztaS:::^'' ''°"''^"'"^" ''^°''^' '---'f - -^0^ voting.-

Councilman Ch.rles Ke.gan.Tn feTv^e'S Vl^r '" ""'"^ '°™"

KEY TO BILLS

• ^f.::^::^^:^ :;^-i^^ ^--^i--^-^ m e.p,ov.en. b.

pecflve employe^pecifies re'sSin n "nCand^'^"'"' ""'-^^ ?^°'-
tisement (Council No 25) writing and has name in advsr-

'• S:S"i. 5at of c^;^tne'glr:sv° r ''-'""-'- ^^^'-^

on basis of merit. regardLrof^aL "1^ "-ake appointmenh hereafter
4. Requesting Board of Estirnat/tl-t'j • °'' "'°'' f*"" ^o. 31).

projects c'o venanfs pro iSnV diSiL't- '° -'""'.^ ^"^^ P^'^"*- "housing
cause of race, cree'd or cllo? [ ReT7o!'3°0 . ) " "'^■^'°" "^ ^^"^"^' ^-
Kn=;rao"427" '" ''"' '^'" ""'"^ ^''P^-d '^y -fers in referendum

I

9.
10.
M.
12.

13.
14.

15,

16.

17.

18.

Int. No.

No.

Providing for adoption of expense budget for fiscal year 1942-43 as
adopted by Board of Estimate (Res. No. 124).

Requesting Board of Estimate to grant general wage increases to all city
employees (Res. No. !85).

Requesting special session of Legislature to assist City in financial burdens
(Res. No. 273).

Sales tax— extending I per cent tax to June 30, 1944 (Council No. 282).
Vote on cutting Mayor's budget for 1933-44 (Res. No, 292).
Utility, etc., tax bills (Council Nos. 282-86).

Providing for payment on per annum basis for all competitive employees
In Park Department and dividing employees Into uniformed, administrative
and clerical forces (Council No. 228).

Vote on overriding Mayor's vetoes re budget for 1943-44 (Res, No, 292).
Providing for appointment of committee to continue examination into
affairs of Civil Service Commission (Res. No. 7).

Reqesting Governor and State War Council to extend child care program
to include children of men who work nights (Res. No. 274),
Providing for appointment of special committee to investigate all matters
relating to property, government and affairs of New York City,
To permit employment of hospital helpers and attendants who have sig-
nified their intentions of becoming citizens, in the Department of Hos-
pitals (Council No. 179).

Vote on discharging from committee the Cacchlone resolution to in-
vestigate groups and individuals inciting race hatred (Res, 308).

MEASURES INTRODUCED BY PETER V. CACCHIONE

IN THE CITY COUNCIL
75 Ads in publications which discriminate.
89 Tom Mooney Park, designate.

139 Armed forces, free transportation for.

215 Fire drills, require.

223 Budget, power to increase,

248 Places of public accommodation, discrimination in.

8 Armed forces, free city transportation for.

9 Armed forces, free transportation on private lines for.
66 Ads in publications which discriminate.

I 16 Waterfront, investigate.

130 War bonds, salary deductions for.

187 Board of Education budget, basis of,

188 O.P.A., rationing by.
203 Working hours, stagger.
215 Housing authority, change rules.

223 Race discrimination, prohibit.

224 Rents, freezing.

225 Bread, halt price rise in.

226 Milk, reduce price of.

227 Advertisements which discriminate, prohibit.

228 State advertising, restrict,

229 Poll tax, abolish.

263 State taxes, increase N. Y, C. share.
273 Special session, requesting.
302 Anti-poll tax bill, passage of.
308 Racial antagonism, investigate inciters of.
318 Patrolman Drew, suspend.
322 Voting hours, extend.

325 Soldiers' allotments, Increase.

326 Nursery schools and after-school care of children, co-ordinate.

BACK THE ATTACK —

Political Advertisement

VOTE NO. 1 ON THE PAPER BALLOT

for

PETER V. CACCHIONE

for
CITY COUNCIL

•

RE-ELECT A FIGHTER FOR FREEDOM

A Man Who Fights for

H Unity behind our Commander-in-Chief,
President Roosevelt

f Victory over the Axis

t Equality of all Peoples

Citizens Committee to Re-Elect Peter V. Cacchione

Dr. Howard Selsam, Chairman; William Alberfson, Secretary

Rev. Thomas S. Harten, Miss Anna Ventura, Vice-Chairmen

16 Court St.. Brooklyn 2, N. Y. Telephone: TRiangle 5-7484

Published by WORKERS LIBRARY PUBLISHERS, Inc.. P. O. Box 148, Station D
(832 Broadway). New York 3. N. Y. October. 1943 <^^ 209 prated to the u.s.a.